If you owe more than your house is worth there is now a solution!
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The HARP Program

The Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) has been extended until December 31, 2013 and allows homeowners to refinance into low mortgage interest rates even if the property has decreased in value and is “underwater”.

Established in 2009, for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Home Affordable Refinance Program provides an option for homeowners to refinance “Under Water Mortgages”. A HARP Refinance addresses situations where the homeowner’s property value has fallen causing them to no longer to qualify under traditional underwriting criteria. Homeowners with a loan owned by Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae have the opportunity to refinance with any participating lender as long as the resulting loan is less than 125% of the current property’s value.

Announced by the President, October 24, 2011, the Home Affordable Refinance Program has been updated allowing more homeowner’s to take advantage of the program.

The New HARP Mortgage Program Guidelines have several benefits for home owners:

  • The program has been extended until December 31, 2013.
  • The maximum Loan to Value (LTV) cap has been removed on home owners looking to refinance in to a fixed rate mortgage.
  • However for homeowners looking to refinance in to an adjustable rate mortgage the maximum LTV is set at 105%.
  • The appraisal process has been streamlined; in cases where an Automated value can be determined an appraisal would not be required.
  • Each mortgage lender will enact its own schedule for implementing these enhancements. Lenders should receive instructions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before November 15. Several lenders could begin taking in mortgage applications under the new enhancements by December 1. Other lenders will need extra time to accommodate the changes. Enhancements such as the ones affecting delivery of loans with LTVs above 125% should be in effect by the first quarter of 2012.

HARP is a component of the Making Home Affordable program which was put forward by the Obama administration. Introduced by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and the Treasury Department, HARP lets borrowers with falling home values and limited access to insurance refinance mortgages into more manageable payments and/or interest rates. Some 900,000 borrowers have refinanced through HARP since the program’s inception in April 2009.

HARP is not the only refinancing option that homeowners can use. In fact, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have assisted about nine million borrowers with refinance since HARP began. What makes HARP unique is that it gives borrowers who are paying a higher amount than their current home value the opportunity to refinance at lower interest rates along with other special benefits.

Who is Eligible

To qualify for refinancing through HARP, the borrower must have taken out a mortgage that was sold to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac no later than May 31, 2009. To check if your loan is with Fannie or Freddie, you can consult each of these enterprises by visiting http://www.FannieMae.com/loanlookup/ or
https://ww3.FreddieMac.com/corporate/, or by calling calling 800-7FANNIE or 800-FREDDIE (between 8am-8pm Eastern Time).

Borrowers must also be current on their mortgages and have no record of late payment within the last six months, and may only have one late payment maximum over the past 12-month period. Loans with loan-to-value ratios (LTVs) higher than 80% will continue to be eligible for HARP.

To learn more, contact Jeffrey Bangerter if you live in CA, FL or GA. 866-309-6626.

Most home owners would not necessarily know who “owns” their mortgage loan. Home owners receive their monthly statements, and make their monthly payments, to their mortgage company (or mortgage servicer). This is usually not the company that provided the funds originally to make the loan.

Typically, the mortgage company providing the statements and accepting the payments is only providing the service of billing, statements, customer service, etc. The company that provided the funds originally is called the “investor”, of which, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are the two largest investors in the country.

Both companies have setup a self service web portal for consumers to determine whether or not that company is the investor on a particular home loan. The links to those services are below.

http://www.fanniemae.com/loanlookup/

 

https://ww3.freddiemac.com/corporate/

To understand the options available for getting help with your mortgage – including the Administration’s Home Affordable Refinance and Modification Programs – it is important for you to know who owns your loan.

General FAQ’s

If you live in CA, FL or GA then call me and let’s see if we can get you a new fixed rate loan at today’s low rates. 866-309-6626

Jeffrey Bangerter
Loan Originator
NMLS#18361
Fair Oaks Branch NMLS#2975
“Licensed by the Dept. of Corporations under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act.”
CA DOC# 417-0030

9712 Fair Oaks Blvd. Suite C
Fair Oaks CA. 95628 Phone: 916-965-6087
Toll Free: 866-309-6626
Fax: 916-965-5726

Email: JBangerter@openmtg.com